Sophie Brooke, a member of Blackburn Cathedral choir, talks about the pressure to fit in.
Many people today are influenced by the images they see in the media and on television and by their desire to be like those they see on the screen and in magazines.
It often makes us feel we must fit in and do what others tell them is seen as best.
This applies not only to the clothes we should wear, the places we should go but also to what it is 'cool' to talk about and even to believe.
Reading Tom Daggett's blog I wondered whether teenagers don't talk about their faith because it's private to them, because it's "not cool" or simply because they don't have a faith.
These days it isn't "cool" to be a Christian, and in school if you are asked what you did at the weekend and you say "I went to church", some people do look at you in a different way - often one which makes you feel uncomfortable.
I was brought up in a practicing Christian family, I attended a local church with my parents and enjoyed going to Sunday School.
I have never been forced to go to church or to have a faith.
I have been through many different phases, from believing so much I didn't question but wanted to proclaim it, to not understanding quite what I believed and so wanting to give up and now to believing but sometimes still having uncertainties.
Although I am now comfortable with my faith, I question, I am far from understanding everything I believe but I know I will discover as I go along and having a faith is not about always trying to understand.
I don't talk very much about my faith to my friends (although we have had some brilliant opportunities to explore and share our own and others beliefs in our RE lessons at school) and some people might think that this must mean that I am embarrassed, that I don't want people to know about what I believe in because I'm afraid of what people will say.
Yet this is not the case. I enjoy my faith because it's private, it's mine and it's something that no one can control, they can only influence.
Part of my not wanting to share my faith however probably does have something to do with peer pressure, I don't mind talking to adults who share my belief, but it is more difficult to talk about it to my peers or adults who don't have a faith.
However, faith isn't only about words; Christians should share their faith with others by their actions.
This isn't always easy either and we don't always do the right thing but I think that we can show others what we believe by how we act; standing up for others even if our friends turn away; listening to others even when we are tired or fed up; not joining in unpleasant conversations about other people; or perhaps giving up something for Lent even if your friends laugh at you.
(I know some of the bloggers out there will say that anyone can do these things, but don't you think that having a faith can give us the incentive to do more than we would otherwise?).
People don't bother to find things out for themselves just like people don't bother to question.
Whether it's questioning what you don't believe in or what you do it doesn't matter, people shouldn't sit back and just let their comfortable life take over, they should always be wondering.
Even though I don't talk about my faith to others I try my best to live by example, I know what my morals are and I like to think that I try to live by them.
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